WASHINGTON: Pakistan has gained atomic capabilities through "international deception" and "clandestine procurement" networks, eminent US lawmakers have said, while warning that the continuation of ‘secretive’ Sino- Pak nuclear ties is setting a wrong precedence for others.
"In 1998, Pakistan conducted its first nuclear test, having developed its weapons far before then. Pakistan had gained that capacity through international deception in part whereby the true end-user of various equipment was obscured through clandestine procurement networks," Congressman Brad Sherman said at a Congressional hearing.
"We now see similar networks on behalf of other states that either are trying to develop nuclear weapons or have done so illegally. These proliferation techniques need countries to be the transshipment hub in the supply chain," said Sherman.
He made the remarks on Thursday while chairing a hearing on ‘Transshipment and Diversion: Are US Trading Partners Doing Enough to Prevent the Spread of Dangerous technologies’ by the Terrorism, Non-Proliferation and Trade Sub-Committee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"Technology and equipment from companies in countries with high-tech manufacturing can then go to those hub countries and then on to the prohibited country," Sherman said.
He alleged that these hub countries have weak or non-existent export controls, ineffective customs and law enforcement officials and most importantly, little or no political will to do anything about this critical problem.
"In addition, large trade volumes at major transshipment ports can help camouflage the illicit shipment of diverted goods," he said.
The Congressman said the US experience with Pakistan’s nuclear programme demonstrated that export control laws will be of little value unless the US can properly control the flow of global cargo at transshipment hubs.
Congressman Ed Royce said China’s notorious record as a WMD, weapons of mass destruction, proliferator demands that it be given very close scrutiny.
"I’m a sceptic on China’s commitment to export controls given its past behaviour and certainly given its nonchalance about non-proliferation in general," he said.
"Its planned sale just announced of two nuclear reactors to Pakistan and its multi-billion dollar investment in Iran’s energy sector are additional cases in point in terms of the way China behaves in this regard and I think Beijing’s pressure on the Obama administration to loosen export controls is concerning," said the Congressman, who is co-chair of the Congress India Caucus. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6209355.cms?prtpage=1
2.Officials: 30 die in floods in southwest Pakistan
QUETTA,– Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 30 people and swept away thousands of homes in southwestern Pakistan
Officials said Friday that they had been unable to visit some of the worst affected areas in Baluchistan province.
The meteorological office recorded 56mm (2.2 inches) of rain fell in several hours in the province early Thursday.
Government official Taliban Hussain said 30 people had been killed in the region, most in Barkhan district.
Rescuer workers assisted by army helicopters were trying to rescue trapped people. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/23/AR2010072301599_pf.html
3.Religious group repeats demands
LAHORE, July 23: The Sunni Ittehad Council, a conglomerate of around 20 Barelvi groups, has threatened the government with a long march from Lahore to Islamabad if its demands are not met.
The demands include identification of those who planned a suicide attack on Data Darbar, removal of Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and appointment of Barelvi prayer leaders to all Auqaf-administered mosques.
Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, council chairman Fazle Karim said the long march plan would be finalised on August 5, at the Chehlum of those who lost their lives in the attack on the shrine.
He asked the prime minister to convene an all party conference on terrorism, as provincial governments had failed to maintain law and order. He said federal and provincial governments were fighting with each other and terrorists were benefiting from this situation. He said the elements behind the shrine attack had not been exposed despite a passage of three weeks.http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/lahore/religious-group-repeats-demands-470
4. HEC turns attention from politicians to academicians
ISLAMABAD, July 22: The spectre of fake degrees, it seems, will not stop haunting the Higher Education Commission (HEC), even if the qualification of parliamentarians is now the headache of other departments.
The degree of an assistant professor of a local university has proved phoney. As a result, Dr Rashid Karim, assistant professor, International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI), has been removed from his position as head of university’s environmental sciences department, Dawn has learnt through reliable sources.
The university administration says it has written to the HEC as well as Dr Karim’s university from where he had secured his PhD for further investigation.
Despite carrying out the challenging task of verifying academic testimonials of all 1,170 members of the parliament, the HEC has also directed all private and public sector universities of the country to run a check on degrees of their faculty members. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/islamabad/hec-turns-attention-from-politicians-to-academicians-370
5.NA panel objects to bureaucrat’s salary
ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee has objected to the induction of Mureed Rahimoon, a BS-18 official from Sindh, in the Oil and Gas Development Company on a ‘princely’ salary of almost four hundred thousand rupees per month and recommended that he be sent back to his province.
The salary of the organisation’s chairman, a BS-21 officer, is Rs2,49,000 per month.
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources also decided to summon the former managing director of the OGDC, even if it required his arrest, to explain “wrongdoings which have brought the country’s most profitable company to the brink of disaster”.
The committee took up the issue of recruitment of employees and induction of government servants in OGDC on deputation and noted with concern that the company and its board of management had been changing goal posts in application of rules for recruitment and deputation.
The committee’s chairman, Shaikh Waqas Akram, accused Mr Mureed Rahimoon of using pressure tactics to influence http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/19-na-panel-objects-to-bureaucrats-salary-470-hh-07
